On the Cover
I opened my mailbox last week to find the newest issue of Horticulture Magazine. This issue is special because it has my photo of a Dr Wyche’s heirloom tomatoes on the front cover! This image first appeared on my blog back in 2009, it’s my last tomato harvest of the season.
They contacted me about using one of my images a few months ago. They were going to use this image for the article on the inside, but then decided it made a great cover for their special edibles issue. It’s quite funny to see my name and blog in print inside the magazine! It’s quite exciting that people are starting to use my images in their magazines, it certainly help pay the bills associated with my blog. Since I don’t want to have ads on my blog I need to find a way to pay the bills associated with it.
I’m quite happy to see that Horticulture is doing a special issue on edible gardening. It is an area that is becoming more and more popular. I think it’s important for everyone to grow even just a few edible things in their gardens.
I’m especially happy that the article my photos were used for was about heirloom vegetables, something I’m passionate about. I love that a magazine like Horticulture is covering this topic. I hope it encourages a few more gardeners to give heirloom vegetable gardening a try.
I usually get all my magazines from the local library as I don’t subscribe to them. I really enjoy reading Horticulture, Mother Earth News, Grit, and Hobby Farms.
Do you have any great magazines you enjoy reading?
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Making Wild Violet Syrup
I mentioned yesterday that the wild violets were in full bloom and we’d been harvesting the blooms and the leaves for our salads. Since I don’t treat my lawn in any way, the violets have slowly taken over and now my entire lawn is dotted with beautiful purple blooms.
I decided to make some violet syrup this year. The syrup is a good source of vitamin C and is supposed to be a great cough syrup. It’s also said to help you fall asleep without making your drowsy. Since I can be a bit of an insomniac, this sounds wonderful to me!
Making violet syrup is no small feat, you need 8 oz of violet blossoms. At first this may not seem like a lot, until you start picking. I harvested a pint of blossoms and they weighed in at 1.2 oz. Out came the big half gallon mason jar and I spent some time sitting on the front lawn harvesting those tiny purple beauties. I’m sure my neighbors were wondering what in the world I was doing. It was quite relaxing though, I enjoyed myself. Mr Chiots saw me through the window and had to come out and get a photo.
It took me about an hour to pick a half gallon jar full of blossoms, which happened to weigh 8 oz. If you have kids this would be a great project for them to do, they would not doubt love this chore!
Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the blossoms and use a wooden spoon to slightly mash the blossoms down into the water. If you need a little more water to cover the blossoms add just enough to cover. I added an extra half cup of water. Let sit overnight on the counter. In the morning, strain out the blossoms and you’ll be left with a beautiful violet liquid. I bet this would be a wonderful natural dye for Easter eggs, or fabric.
Pour the violet water into a saucepan and add 2 cups of honey. Simmer for about 30 minutes until slightly thick and syrupy (keep an eye on it in the beginning as it can foam up and boil over). Pour into jar and store in the fridge. You can waterbath can this for 10 minutes if you’d like to make larger batches. I ended up with about two and a half cups of syrup.
I’m looking forward to using this syrup throughout the year. It tastes like honey and smells of violets and is a beautiful lavender color. It would taste wonderful on ice cream or in tea and as far as cough syrup goes, it’s so much better than the mediciny stuff you’d buy at the store.
Do you make any of your own herbal syrups?
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Beautiful Wild Violets
This time of year our lawn is flush with tiny purple blossoms from all the wild violets. They are quite beautiful, definitely a great reason to not spray!
Wild violets aren’t just a pretty face either, they’re quite healthy. Violets are loaded with vitamin C and all kinds of other goodness (read a great article about them here). You can eat the flowers, leaves and the tubers (although tubers should be eaten in moderation).
There are all kinds of things you can do with them, candy them, make jelly, tincture them, make syrup. We mostly pick them and add them to our salads. I’ll be making violet syrup this year as well (recipe and info on that tomorrow). I may also try to make a tincture to use in my ears. I have tinnitus on occasion and it’s supposed to be helpful for that, I’ll let you know if it works.
In addition to violets, we’ve been picking dandelions and garlic mustard blooms for our salads. Spring is truly a beautiful time, both in the garden and on my plate!
Do you have wild violets in your garden? Do you harvest any flowers to eat?
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Quote of the Day: Lao Tzu
Be empty. Be still.
Just watch everything come and go.
This is the way of Nature.
– Lao Tzu
May 1, how quickly time seems to go. This time of year when things get hectic and busy both at work and in the garden I need to remember this quote. I must remember to stop during my chores and take notice of those things around me so I don’t miss them! At the moment I’m really appreciating life in the garden. After winter I love hearing the buzzing of insects, seeing the green in the grass and the colors of the flowers.
What are you appreciating right now?
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My Well-Documented Life
I started this blog to keep track of my garden. Mostly for myself, I never really figured people would start reading it. Along the way I picked up some readers, they started commenting and this blog became about much more than just documenting my garden. It’s now a chronicle of my efforts to cultivate a simple life. One of the benefits of blogging is that now my entire life is documented through my camera lens. Just about everything I do is photographed from every angle. Take yesterday for example:
Mr Chiots was away for the day so I had a simple lunch of sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, olives and some cheese. I enjoyed a book while eating my delicious meal and of course I took a few photos. Yesterday was kind of a day off for me after a long busy week. I spent most of the day reading a book I picked up from the library called The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love. I’d highly recommend it if you’re looking for a good book.
I bought a trout when we were in Cleveland earlier in the week to cook up for dinner and of course the process was documented as well. The ingredients, preparation and cooking were all snapped. I take a lot of photos that never even make it to the blog, some go on Flickr, other’s just sit in my photo organization software waiting for a future post. On a “normal” day, I take between 50-100 photos.
Mr Chiots even came out and took a few photos of me cooking the trout over the fire. I know you’re loving this colorful cooking outfit, boots and all!
We enjoyed the grilled trout with a side of brown rice with asparagus, garlic, lemon, ramps and a dusting of good cheese. Quick and simple as most of our meals tend to be.
After we ate, we were sitting in the living room and the sun was streaming beautifully through the window. Naturally I took a photos.
Of course there’s the customary photo of one of the pets as well, that’s taken throughout the day (does everyone do this?). This time it was Lucy posing so majestically in the woods while I was cooking the fish.
That was my yesterday. Simple, boring, and yet fully documented and now on the internet for all to read about. For some reason other people seem to enjoy reading & seeing all about it.
I like having a journal of my days and I most likely wouldn’t be doing it without the encouragement of having people reading each and every day. I do appreciate that you all stop by and comment each day, it keeps me posting.
Do you keep a diary or a journal of your life and what you do each day?
